Sweden

Covered bond investors have “had enough of tight spreads" said a lead manager. as demonstrated on Tuesday by the contrasting fortunes of deals from Lansforsakringar Hypotek AB (LF Hyp) and Aareal Bank. At the same time, the European Central Bank continued to scale back its order.

The sterling SSA market snapped back into life with a flurry of new deals after a quiet few weeks — although bankers lamented that the issuance door may have closed just as quickly as it opened.

Rating: Aa1/AA+

The Province of Alberta printed a strong 10 year dollar benchmark on Thursday — the first in that maturity from an SSA since late January — leading the way for others to follow, said SSA bankers. Elsewhere, five years was very much in vogue in the dollar market — although there were some signs of investor fatigue by the end of the week, despite more issuers being expected to look at the tenor next week.

Swedish Export Credit Corporation on Wednesday priced what bankers away from the deal said was a “very strong trade”, as it printed in the same five year tenor that has brought success for SSAs over the last few weeks. But one borrower is set to attempt a tenor that has not been visited since late January.

SSA borrowers are piling up in dollars. Swedish Export Credit Corporation (SEK) will bring a five year benchmark on Wednesday, coming on the heels of Oesterreichische Kontrollbank’s (OeKB) own deal in the tenor on Tuedsay.

Two SSA borrowers readied trades in the dollar market on Monday, lining up for a busy week of issuance.

This week's scorecard looks at the progress Nordic agencies have made in their funding programmes.

In the wake of Venezuela’s launch of petro, an oil-backed digital currency under the control of the nation’s central bank, a host of sovereign cryptocurrency products have emerged. For some nations, it is a ploy to circumvent sanctions but, for others, it could provide an important piece of future infrastructure for blockchain based settlement.

Six of the nine investment grade corporate new issues in the last week of February were announced with a three letter acronym that, while providing clarity, served to frustrate investors keen to see greater volumes of issuance. WNG stands for “will not grow” and this week told investors that the meagre sized deals would not be increased, irrespective of demand.

Governments and central banks around the world are announcing plans for state run cryptocurrencies. While some developing countries are keen to do so to circumvent international sanctions, cryptocurrencies from developed countries could form a major part of blockchain settlement infrastructure.

D Carnegie & Co, Sweden's largest listed residential property developer, is raising capital through a rights issue to expand is investment and development opportunities.